How Has a Dog Changed Your Life?

Dogs are more than just loyal companions — they can make a real difference in our lives. Whether they're helping the blind to see or simply cheering us up after a bad day, dogs enrich our existence.

No one knows this better than the team at Susquehanna Service Dogs. A program of Keystone Human Services, SSD breeds, raises, and trains service dogs and then places them with children and adults with disabilities. The dogs perform a wide array of tasks, from walking assistance to retrieval of different types of objects.

Susquehanna Service Dogs recently joined forces with BSD to launch the Dogs Change Lives contest. For the month of February, the contest is looking far and wide to collect stories of how dogs have had an impact on people's lives. The voting starts in March, and the story with the most votes at the end of the month wins $1,000.

BSD senior client manager Gene Koo explains the thinking behind the program:

"Most people realize the great work that service dogs can do, but few people outside of the Pennsylvania community are aware of how the team at Susquehanna Service Dogs are changing lives every day. With the Dogs Change Lives contest, we wanted to do a few things to change that. First, we wanted to do something that would appeal to people outside of the normal service dogs community and get more folks involved. Second, we just wanted to have fun and give people a chance to win a little cash by sharing a story about their pooch."

You can enter a story of your own here and share the contest with your friends and family here. Don't forget to come back and vote on March 1st!

Pictured above (L to R): POTUS and Woody, BSD's resident cocker spaniels, who regularly bring copious tail-wagging to BSD offices in New York and D.C. (However, the same might not be said by the hardworking local mailmen and women.)